Colbert, whose publisher is Hachette, took Amazon(AMZN) to task for what Hachette has said is Amazon's slow restocking of some of its books. Hachette says it's causing "available in 2-4 weeks" messages to appear on titles by Colbert, Malcolm Gladwell, novelist James Patterson, and others.

Some of Hachette's books have been listed as "out of stock", and recently Amazon removed preorder capabilities for some books, according to Hachette.

Amazon has reportedly been pressuring Hachette to let it lower prices for e-books and ultimately pay Hachette less for them.Hachette has resisted.

In statement last week about the apparent log-jam Amazon said, "Unfortunately, despite much work from both sides, we have been unable to reach mutually-acceptable agreement on terms."